Evaluate the marriage of Nora and Torvald, using Callwood's ideas for important qualities in a mate as criteria. Should the relationship have succeeded or failed, according to Callwood?

 

The relationship between Nora and Torvald can be compared to a dollhouse, where Nora feels that she is a doll, and her husband just controlled her. For her, it was no longer love. Nora prefers the safety of her husband even if she violates the rule of their marriage. This is how she loves it. On the one hand, her husband does not agree with this because he prefers her dignity rather than Nora. It was the reason why Nora realized that her husband did not love her because he could not put her first.

Marriage should be happy, if you are happy with each other it will be successful. If there is a problem that comes, we should still choose our spouse because you are already married. Whatever the problem, choose your spouse so you can last. It is about your trust, respect, and love for each other.

Step-by-step explanation

As the play progresses, the audience comes to learn that due to a sickness Torvald had in the past, Nora in order to pay for a trip needed to save Torvald's life was forced to take a loan from a rich man known as Mr. Krogstad. There is a little subtlety, Nora not only got this loan behind Torvald's back, but in the legal process of obtaining it, she was forced, due to the circumstances, to forge a signature so that she could get the money in time to save her husband's life. It is impressive that Nora was able to get the loan as Nora's friend, Mrs. Linden, remarks "a wife can't borrow [money] without her husband's consent" (Ibsen 848). This implies Nora is not completely a money loving fiend who just follows every instruction given by her husband, but she is a willing and determined individual who does what is needed for the best of her loved ones.

Finally, when Torvald finds out of the debt and Nora's forgery, he rages on at Nora for what she has done. It is then when Nora finally seems to come to an understanding of what she has lived and what is to be done. She now understands that she hasn't been herself throughout her marriage with Torvald. As she defends her position on her actions she states, "When I look back on it now... I lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald. But you would have it so" (Ibsen 885). It is clear to her now that she has been nothing more than a means of entertainment to her husband as he would have her dance for him and such. And Torvald, as much as he might have critiqued her in the end for her childish behavior, Nora points out that it is for performing those tricks he loved of her.

In the end, Nora comes out as a strong willed, independent woman who knows what she wants. Nora is not only Ibsen's vessel to show women's strong character, but serves the purpose of showing women as equal human beings. Nora also helps point out that there might some aspects of society which might be incorrect besides the perception of women as the less sharp sex.